Bacary Sagna says the departure of Unai Emery and the situation surrounding his sacking is a bit sad, and he thinks Arsenal need more stability.

Arsenal removed Unai Emery as head coach of the club on Friday, replacing him with interim boss Freddie Ljungberg. Emery lasted just 18 months in charge, not even as many months as Arsene Wenger managed in years.

Bacary Sagna, who spent seven years at Arsenal in the latter stages of Wenger’s reign, told Sky Sports he thinks the team needs a bit more stability. He admitted it’s hard to see his former club in the state they are at the moment.

“It’s a bit sad, you know,” Sagna said. “Arsenal is in my heart, so when I see the club is struggling it’s always difficult. I believe they need more stability because it hasn’t been easy for the players to deal with [everything that] happened since Arsene left.

“They need to keep working hard and they need to keep going, because no matter what they have a good team and they have quality players. I trust the team, I trust the process, they just have to be a bit patient.”

It’s true that Arsenal should have a group of players capable of at least a significant improvement on the last three months.

The idea that they’ll suddenly be challenging for the title under a new coach is a bit far-fetched. Still, there’s no way a squad with Mesut Özil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Nicolas Pepe and others should be winning so few matches.

Whether Freddie Ljungberg is the right coach to change that remains to be seen, but Arsenal just need to start winning games again now.